How to play Pokemon Go

STAY CONNECTED. FOLLOW POLYGON NOW! ×
If you’re here, it’s because everyone you know is talking about one thing: Pokémon Go, the new iOS and Android game that’s sending people outside in droves. But maybe you’re not yet one of them, because, well, you’re not really sure what Pokémon Go even is.

MUST READ

pokemon go
Your biggest Pokémon Go questions, answered
To those who grew up dreaming of becoming a Pokémon master, that seems unfathomable. Yet the simplicity and viral popularity of Pokémon Go is catching the eyes of complete newcomers too. That’s how it raced to the top of the iTunes charts, after all; Pokémon Go appears to be gaming’s latest crossover hit.

For the parents, grandparents, non-fans and others who don’t quite get what all the fuss is about, here are six tips to clue you in.

Where to download Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is now available for free in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. It will roll out to more regions in the coming weeks, but for natives of any of the above countries, it can be found on iTunes and the Google Play store.

Again, Pokémon Go is free to play (although there are opportunities to spend actual cash within the game itself), so all you have to do is press “download” to begin installing the game onto your iPhone or Android device.

How to start up the game

Once it’s ready to go, you can start playing by selecting a Google account to connect the game to. Have a Gmail address? You should be good to go. If you don’t, you can create one for free online before logging into Pokémon Go.

The other option is to create a Pokémon Trainer Club account, but that’s more for dedicated fans of the series, so don’t worry about doing that.

The game requires you to always be connected to the internet in order to play, so if you’re not on Wi-Fi or data, you won’t be able to log in. The servers are currently finicky, so you may experience other issues trying to get your Pokémon Go game started.

How to play the game

The biggest selling point of Pokémon Go is that it requires you to actually get up off the couch and head outside in order to play it. The game will walk you through this and make it abundantly clear, but for those who miss the directions: It relies on your phone’s GPS signal in order to determine where you are and where the Pokémon closest to you are.

That being said, to get to those Pokémon, you’ll have to move your real, physical, human body. The avatar on screen will move in accordance with your position within the world itself. To walk in Pokémon Go, you have to walk in real life.

Once you figure that part out, you’ll start moving around the map on the screen. Niantic Labs, a former subsidiary of Google and developer of the game, created the image below to help you understand what all those little markers on the map mean:

Niantic Labs
Here’s what the numbers are referring to, in order:

1. The compass: Toggles the viewing direction in Map View. You can switch between a north-viewing direction and auto-rotation, which follows your viewing direction. You can also rotate using touch gestures.

We recommend that you check out our how-to guide for more information on what much of this means. If you’re a total Pokémon newbie, you’ll just want to concern yourself with the Pokémon themselves.

Pokémon: The world’s shortest explainer

In case your kids, friends or relatives haven’t debriefed you yet, what you need to know about Pokémon is that they’re creatures inspired by plants, animals and various other things. Each one has different attributes, skills and quirks; they also can evolve into newer, stronger Pokémon with some training. In a Pokémon game, like Pokémon Go, the ultimate goal is to capture them — all 151 of them — to add to your personal collection. Doing so makes you a Pokémon master. That’s really just a vanity title, and it doesn’t mean much in Pokémon Go. Still, that collecting aspect is what keeps people coming back to these games, time and again.

POKÉMON GO REQUIRES YOU TO ACTUALLY GET UP OFF THE COUCH

How to find a Pokémon

Keep walking around outside in order to find a Pokémon. The little pocket monsters will appear on the map once you’ve stumbled upon one. That meter in the lower right-hand corner alerts you to which ones are close by; if they’re in silhouette, that means they’re new ones for you to capture.

Finding them can be tough, especially in more isolated areas. They tend to appear in grass, making Pokémon Go a good choice for a camping trip. Once you see one on the map, tap on it. That will take you to a new screen, where you’ll see the Pokémon in your actual surroundings.

You can then take pictures of the monster for fun, or you can swipe the red-and-white ball at the bottom of the screen to try to add it to your collection. This gets a little bit tricky, but try your best to aim your throw for the center of the Pokémon. Eventually, it will be caught.

Essentially, you can just keep doing this until you’re tired of walking.

How to keep playing

The game must always be open for you to play it. It doesn’t play in the background without you. That means you’ll have to open it up and log back into your account (if you signed out or the servers kicked out out, that is) in order to get back into the game.

You’ll also have to have your phone’s screen on the entire time that you’re playing the game. This means it’s time to get comfortable walking around the block with your phone out and your eyes glued to it. (We have a feeling that that will be the least of your troubles in learning to play the game, however.)

The next steps

For many, installing Pokémon Go will just be something they do at the behest of their friends or family who won’t stop talking about how much fun they’re having. Maybe you’ll find yourself loving the game just as much as they do, despite not having the same game-playing or Pokémon-catching background.

If that’s the case, Polygon has several other guides on what you need to know about playing the game. Read our FAQ for even more information on the basics, as well as how to find special locations, how to make new, real life friends while playing, and where you shouldn’t stop while playing Pokémon Go. If you get really into the collection aspect, we also have a tip on how to get one of the series’ most beloved characters: Pikachu.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Website use

All trademarks, service marks, trade names and photography are the property of longtran.co and longtranconcept.co. No use of these may be made without the prior written consent from both websites. The logo, designs, advertisements, and photographic images described or displayed on the site are the intellectual property of longtranconcept.co and may not be used without permission.

Use restrictions

If the item is not received and sent back to us by the postal service company you will be charged the actual shipping fee (not according to the above table). The price of the item will be credited once we receive the item. We will contact you to inform you when we receive the package.

Disclaimer

By using this site, you assume full necessary servicing or repairs of any equipment you use in connection with your use of this site, and that longtranconcept.co shall not be liable for any damages of any kind related to your use of this site.

Communications

We continuously make efforts to improve our Customer Care and service efficiency. Any suggestions, feedback, ideas or communication you provide us with will help us achieve this goal. Consequently, if you are on our mailing list, we may send you optional surveys, contests or promotions. However all non-personal information collected will be the property of longtranconcept.co.

Policy Changes

This policy replaces all previous disclosures we may have provided you about our information practices. We reserve the right to change this policy at any time. If our information practices change in the future, we will notify you by posting the policy changes on our website.

Contact us

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, if you wish to be removed from our mailing list or for any other information, you may contact us at:

Long Tran

78 69th St #6A Guttenberg, NJ07093 U.S.A +1.646.531.3084

SHIPPING POLICY

Shipping fees and delivery times
All shipping services used by LONG TRAN provide a tracking number and full insurance. In the event that multiple orders are placed with the same shipping destination and on the same account, orders may be combined and the shipping fees will be adjusted unless otherwise requested. Days in the following table refer to business days.Please allow up to two business days (not including weekends or holidays) for us to process your order. Processing time is required so that we can review your order information and prepare it for shipping.Exact shipping options and transit times will be provided at checkout.

We don't have "Overnight option", due to the processing time,weekend and holidays. However, you can contact us for urgent request. Express Worldwide.All orders (flat rate) - $50 (7 - 9 days) ¹ Orders must be made before 11:00 a.m. UTC Time to qualify for next day a.m. shipping. ² Some exceptions apply to select countries. Accurate transit times available on checkout. Missing tracking information. Please allow at least one business day after your order is shipped for the tracking information to appear online. If the tracking information does not update online, and the expected delivery date has passed, please contact our Customer Care team here so that we can assist you further.

COOKIES & PRIVACY

We use Google Analytics, a service provided by Google. This service gathers anonymous data regarding how people use our site and then provide us with visitor statistics, details of page views, etc. We use this data to help optimise our site for those of you that use it. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, you can opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics here.

We also use CoreMetrics, which is another analytics tool. Again, we use this anonymous data only to help benefit our users. If you feel uncomfortable with this, you can also opt out here.

RETARGETING

Once someone has visited our site, we'd like to think that our adverts would be relevant to that person, so we use a cookie that recognises you while you visit other sites and delivers our adverts to you. Hopefully you prefer this to adverts offering you miracle diet pills or a low-rate personal loan, but if you'd like to opt out you can do so here.

WEBSITE WIDGETS

To deliver a content-rich site, and one that incorporates social functionality, we have several widgets that operate on the site - this can be anything from Twitter buttons to the software that powers blog comments. Collectively they make our website more interesting, but most of them use cookies as part of their operation. Here is a list of the third-parties tracking data on our site via cookies:

YouTube

Vimeo

Mixcloud

GooglePlus

Facebook

Twitter

We are working to find out exactly what each of these widget does, but we are pretty confident that they all collect data anonymously unless you are already logged-in to their service.

WHAT IF YOU DON'T WANT ANY COOKIES?

While would love to offer a cookie-free version of our site, we are a small company and simply don't have the resources to provide and maintain one. You can, of course, set your browser to not accept cookies, but this will hinder core functionality of our site and many others. You can remove any cookies we have already put on your machine within your browser settings, or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Delete, in many cases.

RETURN POLICY

Items marked final sale cannot be returned. A Return Authorization number must be requested within 14 days of the order's delivery date. The item(s) must not be worn, altered or washed and be accompanied by original tags. Footwear must be accompanied by the original box in its original condition, without Post labels. We do not accept returns for underwear and swimwear. Shipping fees are not refundable. The balance will be refunded to your credit card within 5 business days of the reception of the item at the LONG TRAN warehouse. All returns must be authorized by us prior to the return. Please contact us by email or phone to make a Return Authorization request. The return authorization number must be clearly written on the outside of the package. Additionally, returns should be shipped with a service providing a tracking number and insurance as we are not responsible for delayed or lost packages. Any returns received without a Return Authorization number or that do not comply with the above may be denied at the discretion of LONG TRAN.

United States returns

Returns from the U.S. should be shipped via the United States Postal Service (USPS). Returns shipped with other services than USPS will incur brokerage fees which may be deducted from your return at the discretion of LONG TRAN. All returned items should be declared as a "Return of Canadian Merchandise" on the customs declaration; returned packages that don't have this mention on their custom declaration may not be successfully delivered to our warehouse and may incur additional fees. International returns All returned items should be declared as a "Return of Canadian Merchandise" on the customs declaration; returned packages that don't have this mention on their custom declaration may not be successfully delivered to our warehouse and may incur additional fees.

SECURITY

We guarantee that every transaction you make on LONG TRAN will be safe .

CUSTOMER SERVICE

If you have any additional questions, concerns or comments please contact our customer services on info@longtran.co between our opening hours of Monday-Friday 9:30am – 5.30pm UTC.

If you need information about your order, our selection of products, or any gift-buying advice, the LONG TRAN customer service team are happy to help.
Please contact us by emailing info@longtran.co
Customer services are open from 09:30 until 17:30 GMT Monday to Friday.